Saturday of the Second Week of Advent

Lectionary: 186

Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

As you know, Advent is very short this year, and we've already arrived on December 16. The next nine days until December 25 offer readings from the "infancy narratives" of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke. We hear today the last mention of Saint John the Baptist, and Jesus's explanation that the murdered man was Elijah returned. 

The Prophet Elijah was perhaps the most formidable of all the Hebrew prophets; the tyranny of David's royal descendants required a prophet whose person was untouchable, whose judgement was final, whose curses were fatal. Elijah never doubted his authority as God's spokesman, nor did anyone else. His enemies trembled before him, his allies kept their distance, and he had no friends. His rod and staff were the Lord himself. 

The Church is sent with a prophetic ministry to the modern world. We have authority to recognize evil laws, customs, and practices; as well as the authority to bless those which favor the oppressed, We don't need to speak in Marxian terms about "class struggle;" we can see as God sees widespread neglect of those whom scripture calls "widows, orphans, and aliens." We can create internal policies with a "preferential option for the poor;" and we can urge governments and other institutions to do the same. 

Our approval of some policies and condemnation of others prepare the way of the Lord; they make straight his paths in the minds and hearts of those willing to welcome and know the truth. Our teachings on moral issues are never just the opinions of a religious sect. They're not offered as options for those who might aspire to a better life. If vegetarianism promises healthier bodies and clearer minds, we might recommend its asceticism; but it doesn't represent a moral issue. But if shopping as a pastime exploits poorer nations and trashes the environment, we must protest. 

Always the Church represents, and confronts the world with, the unconditional. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: 

Most of all, man is in need of a sense of the unconditional. Otherwise, he will perish. "Without relating himself to the unconditional," Kierkegaard says, "man cannot in the deepest sense be said to live... that is it may be said he continues to live, but spiritlessly." 
Kierkegaard... felt that man's gravest danger lurked in the loss of his sense of the unconditional, the absolute. We conduct our lives according to conditionals, compromises, and concessions, all relatives.
In faith an individual commits everything to the Absoluteness of God. But the Absolute is cruel; it demands all. Abraham Joshua Heschel, A Passion for Truth, Jewish Lights Publishing, 1995, page 112

The Church represents the unconditional authority of God to the world. There is no other institution that can do that.

Someone asked me about the moral imperative to participate in the democratic process. I recommended that she, "Hold your nose and vote." Our decisions are shaped by an awareness of the unconditional, even as we live in a world of conditionals, compromises, and concessions. Our presence is holy; our beliefs are sacred, and our contribution is vital. Without us the world will spin on its axis into futility and death. Nothing and no one will be saved.

We dare not attempt to disengage completely from the world and its ways for we are sent to speak the truth to the world. But during this Advent novena, as we hear the stories of Jesus' birth, we can afford to be swept out of the world into joy and gladness. We owe that much to ourselves.